“I’m reminded of my father, Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King, standing on a car in 1963 after our home in Birmingham, Alabama had been burned…[and] fire-bombed,” she recalled. “And, Dad stood on the car and he [said,] ‘If you must hit someone, hit me. But, I would rather you go home and pray. My family and I are fine.’”

King said that Floyd’s brother Terrence was correct in calling for justice.

“Terrence is correct. Protest is necessary. It’s required at this time. It must be prayerful. It must be peaceful,” she affirmed. “Leaders have to be calming the masses. Not saying, ‘Don’t protest.’ I’m protesting.”

Martin Luther King III takes a moment by George Floyd’s casket Thursday, June 4, 2020, before a memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

King also pointed out that Floyd’s death has served as a beacon highlighting other unjust acts at the hands of law enforcement agents across the country.

“What has happened has been wrong. Not just to George Floyd, [though] certainly to George. There are others who have experienced that same fate,” she continued.

“We know that it has nothing really to do with skin color because we had African-American policemen…attack African-American college students in Atlanta…tasing them and roughing them up and breaking the young man’s hand because they were out on the street after curfew returning to their homes,” she commented. “And, they were not violently protesting.”

“And leadership…whether you are just a leader of your own household, whether you are on your job, a minister, an elected official, whoever you are — a CEO of a corporation — let’s assure each other,” she urged. “Let’s calm each other.”

“Violence is immoral. Martin Luther King Jr. did say that. And, by me as a Christian knowing Christ, I know we have to be prayerful not fearful, and not violent,” King concluded.

“Some saw something on social media that questioned my character, and, I’ll own it, by the way, but that is not what I believe, and it is not what we teach. And I understand how this has made you feel and I apologize,” Hodges said Sunday morning.

Chris Hodges, senior pastor and founder of 60,000-member Church of the Highlands in Alabama, apologized multiple times for liking social media posts by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk that a high school teacher called racially insensitive. (Church of the Highlands)

Addressing George Floyd’s death while under police custody on Memorial Day, and the ensuing racial unrest, during a Saturday morning prayer service, Hodges explained: “Racism, bigotry, prejudice exists. It’s real and it’s of the devil. White supremacy or any supremacy other than Christ is of the devil.”

The apology came after a Birmingham high school English teacher told a local newspaper she found it objectionable the pastor was following Kirk on social media.

“I do not attend Church of the Highlands,” Jasmine Faith Clisby told AL.com, adding that she isn’t “judging him” or “saying he’s racist” but “[Hodges] likes someone who posts things that do not seem culturally sensitive to me.”

The Carver High School teacher slammed Kirk for saying white privilege is a myth.

One of the posts, according to AL.com, shows two photos — one of President Trump standing next to Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks with the caption “The racist Donald Trump in the 1980s,” and the other Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam with two men wearing blackface and a KKK costume with the caption “Progressive Leftist Ralph Northam in the 1980s.”

Another screenshot showed former President Barack Obama playing golf beneath a quote from Michelle Obama urging people to stay home except for essential activities. Another screenshot shows Hodges liking a photo of Kirk donating blood above the sentence, “We all must do our part to defeat China Virus.”

Hodges, who has been active in the Evangelicals for Trump Coalition, shared a lengthy letter with his congregation Tuesday in his third public apology after the teacher’s social media post.

“After taking the time to review and reflect, I can tell you those social media posts that I ‘liked’ do not reflect, in any way, my true feelings or beliefs,” Hodges explained. “I now realize they were hurtful and divisive, and I sincerely apologize.

The officer asked him if he’d like to pray. The protester put down his sign and the two embraced and prayed.

“It was very touching,” Hoskins told the media. “That gentleman was such a nice guy. I believe it created a solidarity there between him expressing his freedom of speech and me there as a police officer and that’s something the world needs to see.”

The officer noted that their embrace had an impact on others around them, especially after some rocks were thrown at them. FOX 17 reports that later in the day, 28 people were arrested downtown. Fires were set inside the Nashville historic courthouse and City Hall, and businesses and police cars were vandalized.

“You can see rioting and looting in all cities across the United States,” Hoskins said. “But I think there are things happening outside of those images that are real and powerful, and my image happened to be caught at that time.”

He didn’t know the image was caught on camera until the department posted it, and it immediately went viral.

Hoskins concluded that the image shows a “peaceful solidarity” between law enforcement and society, showing there can be a “peaceful outcome” when both sides come together.

“Peaceful protests need to happen. That’s part of our culture. It’s part of who we are. And, change needs to happen. But, you cannot call out Antifa and these agitators and anarchists who are in the middle of these peaceful protests who have now made them into something that is very damaging?” he asked.

“You know what is damaging to our culture is when the people do not feel safe on the streets because [of] people who want to [use the] death of someone to actually just go in and steal something. That never should be allowed,” Collins asserted. “Where is their outrage there instead of their rage [against] the president who they thoroughly dislike?”

Collins also told Henry that the media’s reaction to President Trump’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was damaged during violent protests on Sunday, and a photo of him holding a Holy Bible in front of the house of worship, did not surprise him. Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were among the leading Democrats who slammed Trump’s visit as a “photo op.”

Other luminaries also did not like how the president’s visit appeared.

“Seeing President Trump stand in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church while holding a Bible in response to calls for racial justice — right after using military force to clear peaceful protesters out of the area — is one of the most flagrant misuses of religion I have ever seen,” Interfaith Alliance President Rabbi Jack Moline said in a statement. “This only underscores the president’s complete lack of compassion for Black Americans and the lethal consequences of racism.”

The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, to which St. John’s belongs, said she was “outraged” by the moment and noted that Trump didn’t pray during his visit.

The Washington Post reported that the president had staged the setting and that he was “eager to show that the nation’s capital — and especially his own downtown swath of it — was under control.”

Collins said the criticism of Trump’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church is misguided.

“I think they seem more concerned that he actually had a Bible,” Collins remarked. “A symbol of our faith seems to be more concerning to them than the actual issues that are going on in our country right now.”

“If The Washington Post and our Democratic leadership would actually get together…let’s start talking about ideas that can actually help our communities – bring concern and love and communities together,” he argued.

“We’ve done this before. Before we had our police working group, I went [all] over the country and talked about…ways we can bring our police departments and our communities together to understand this, [and] going forward how we can have better relations,” Collins added.

“The Judiciary Committee ought to be working on this instead of what we’re doing on an elections bill tomorrow. We should actually be talking about something that matters.”

“Peaceful protests need to happen. That’s part of our culture. It’s part of who we are. And, change needs to happen. But, you cannot call out Antifa and these agitators and anarchists who are in the middle of these peaceful protests who have now made them into something that is very damaging?” he asked.

“You know what is damaging to our culture is when the people do not feel safe on the streets because [of] people who want to [use the] death of someone to actually just go in and steal something. That never should be allowed,” Collins asserted. “Where is their outrage there instead of their rage [against] the president who they thoroughly dislike?”

Collins also told Henry that the media’s reaction to President Trump’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was damaged during violent protests on Sunday, and a photo of him holding a Holy Bible in front of the house of worship, did not surprise him. Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were among the leading Democrats who slammed Trump’s visit as a “photo op.”

Other luminaries also did not like how the president’s visit appeared.

“Seeing President Trump stand in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church while holding a Bible in response to calls for racial justice — right after using military force to clear peaceful protesters out of the area — is one of the most flagrant misuses of religion I have ever seen,” Interfaith Alliance President Rabbi Jack Moline said in a statement. “This only underscores the president’s complete lack of compassion for Black Americans and the lethal consequences of racism.”

The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, to which St. John’s belongs, said she was “outraged” by the moment and noted that Trump didn’t pray during his visit.

The Washington Post reported that the president had staged the setting and that he was “eager to show that the nation’s capital — and especially his own downtown swath of it — was under control.”

Collins said the criticism of Trump’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church is misguided.

“I think they seem more concerned that he actually had a Bible,” Collins remarked. “A symbol of our faith seems to be more concerning to them than the actual issues that are going on in our country right now.”

“If The Washington Post and our Democratic leadership would actually get together…let’s start talking about ideas that can actually help our communities – bring concern and love and communities together,” he argued.

“We’ve done this before. Before we had our police working group, I went [all] over the country and talked about…ways we can bring our police departments and our communities together to understand this, [and] going forward how we can have better relations,” Collins added.

“The Judiciary Committee ought to be working on this instead of what we’re doing on an elections bill tomorrow. We should actually be talking about something that matters.”

“As you know Griff, we’re in a crisis. And, at a moment like this, it’s very important that all of our nation’s leaders, not just those who are elected but community leaders, the clergy — everyone — come together,” she said. “This is one of those crises where we do need empathy, we need an understanding of why this pain, why this trauma is causing so much grief.”

Demonstrators kneel before police Saturday, May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Brazile said the damage being caused by rioters and looters shouldn’t overshadow the efforts of demonstrators trying to peacefully honor 46-year-old George Floyd and call for justice.

Floyd, an unarmed black man, died while being detained by police in Minneapolis. A white officer put his knee into the neck of the handcuffed man until he went limp on the ground. That officer has been fired and charged with murder and manslaughter.

According to Brazile, the trauma and “terrorism” inflicted on non-white American citizens needs to be the focus of leaders at all levels moving forward.

“I understand that it may be difficult for my white friends — and I have plenty — to understand that this pain is born from a frustration that simply because of the color of your skin you’re pulled over, you’re suspected, you are treated as if you’re not an American citizen, your life is not valued,” she said.

“So, yes, it is George Floyd. We want justice for him. It is also the young man down in Georgia. It is also the young woman in [Kentucky], in her own house. And there are so many other examples that I can give you.”

“But watching that video, hearing a man call out to his deceased Mama, begging this officer, pleading with him, to remove his knee from his neck: That has gripped us. That has challenged us, and that should, at least at this moment, force us to figure out how we come together.

“This is not a moment to try to stoke up racial animosity. This is a moment to bring reconciliation to the table from the president of the United States on down and from the clergy and the community on up,” Brazile told Jenkins.

“We meet together as one,” she said. “The president of the United States and the clergy and the community as one. We are one people.”

Evangelist Alveda King called for unity and leadership from community and spiritual leaders Saturday after riots spread across the country, protesting the death of an unarmed black man in the hands of Minneapolis police.

King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., said on “Fox & Friends Weekend” that there must be justice in the killing of George Floyd and other innocent black men and women, but first there must be calm — and faith.

“Acts 17:26 says, ‘Of one blood, God made all people to live together on the face of the Earth,'” she said. “Martin Luther King Jr. said we must learn to live together as brothers — and I’ll add ‘as sisters’ — or perish together as fools. Our president, Donald John Trump, has said we all believe the same.”

Floyd’s death was recorded in multiple videos earlier this month. Officer Derek Chauvin is shown pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for around eight minutes as the handcuffed Floyd cries for him to stop and then becomes unresponsive.

After Floyd, 46, was killed, Chauvin and other officers involved were fired. Chauvin was arrested on Friday afternoon and charged with murder and manslaughter.

A New York Police Department vehicle is set on fire as people from around the country protest the death of George Floyd in New York, May 29, 2020.

“Right now, in this nation, people are being killed basically because of skin color. … So there’s a disregard for the sanctity of human life,” King told host Pete Hegseth.

“Martin Luther King Jr. said when we learn to value the human personality, we won’t kill anybody,” she continued. “So, we can truly say it appears as though the officer that had his knee on the neck of George Floyd, he had no regard for Mr. Floyd as a person. He didn’t see a person. He didn’t see a community member [who] was serving that community.”

What was clearly seen by the American public, she said, was that Floyd died with “cruelty.”

“The issue of race is a lie. Racism is socially engineered. We’re not a different race of people because our skin’s different. No, we’re not,” she added. “And so, we’re seeing our black men — our brothers and sisters — being continually slaughtered with an effort of the enemy. This is good and evil.”

The Fox News contributor said leadership seems to be missing in the nationwide turmoil over police killings of unarmed black people.

Liberty Counsel, the legal non-profit representing Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church and Logos Baptist Ministries in court, said the change is a “complete victory in the near term.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker answers questions from the media during his daily press briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic from his office at the Illinois State Capitol, May 22, in Springfield, Ill. (Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP, Pool)

“The only thing that changed was he was dragged to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court,” Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver said in a news release. “While we are happy that all churches and houses of worship no longer have any restrictions, we want to make sure this tyranny and abuse never happens again.”

Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Chicago, Ill., held a service May 10, in defiance of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic as states begin to reopen. (Liberty Counsel)

A similar case was brought forth on Tuesday by South Bay Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista, Calif.

On Monday, Calfornia Gov. Gavin Newsom announced churches could reopen but they would be limited to 25 percent capacity or 100 people, whichever is less, but only with the approval of local officials.

Still, Bishop Arthur Hodges is moving forward to the Supreme Court. “We still have a problem here because that is clear discrimination against churches because no other enterprise in California has those restrictions placed on them, only churches. This is a clear violation of our constitutional rights to free exercise in assembly,” Hodges said.

The service is set to begin at 11 a.m. EDT, with a special retrospective of his global influence beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Upon news of his death, Pence tweeted: “Deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist whose ministry for the gospel of Jesus Christ impacted millions around the world. Ravi was a man of faith who could ‘rightly handle the word of truth’ like few others in our time & he was my friend.”

The vice president visited the Zacharias family at RZIM’s headquarters in Alpharetta on May 22 as the two were longtime friends. Zacharias spoke at the Indiana Leadership Prayer Breakfast in 2014 at the request of then-governor Pence.

Ravi Zacharias died on May 19 from a rare form of cancer. (Ravi Zacharias International Ministries)

Zacharias was a frequent guest on Fox News Channel and grew RZIM, which he founded in 1984, into a global team of nearly 100 Christian scholars and authors who continue his legacy around the world today.

With churches around the country financially squeezed by the coronavirus shutdowns — which banned in-person services for months in many places — a faith-based investment firm is getting involved.

“When you don’t have Mass, not everybody is necessarily thinking, ‘Gosh, father needs money for keeping the lights on,’” said Tony Minopoli, the president and chief investment officer of The Knights of Columbus Asset Advisers.

The firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the eponymous fraternal order, and it’s providing up to $100 million in lines of credit to dioceses around the country suffering from a lack of donations due to COVID-19 shutdowns. Each individual diocese can apply for up to $1 million.

The short-term lines of credit carry a roughly 2 percent interest rate for two years. At the end of the term, borrowers can convert the balance to a five-, 10- or 20-year fixed-rate, low-interest loan similar to the type that the Knights of Columbus have offered to Catholic entities since 1896, Minopoli told Fox News.

“The church is largely in the same situation as many, many small businesses,” Minopoli said, as both small businesses and churches are looking at how they can stay afloat until daily life returns to normal.

The shutdowns have resulted in steep financial consequences. And the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which issued aid to small businesses, including some churches, has limitations on how the money it provided can be spent.

Tony Minopoli, the president and chief investment officer of The Knights of Columbus Asset Advisers. (Courtesy: The Knights of Columbus)

Even with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issuing temporary guidelines for communities of faith last week with an eye toward reopening, many church doors remain closed.

Coronavirus restrictions that banned large gatherings and mandated social distancing have resulted in many empty churches from coast to coast.

And faith leaders expect to continue to see diminished giving as their congregants readjust, while maintenance and overhead costs remain the same. Additional sanitation measures in the post-pandemic world might even increase expenses, Minopoli told Fox News.

The Knights of Columbus organization was founded in 1882 in New Haven, Conn., by Michael J. McGivney, whom the Vatican announced on Wednesday will be beatified — a major step toward Roman Catholic sainthood.

“For a simple local parish priest to have a vision of what this thing could become is pretty amazing,” Minopoli added. “And for a guy from Connecticut to become a saint — pretty cool stuff.”

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